NYC couples celebrate gay marriage ruling

NEW YORK --Michael Adams and his partner, Fred Davie, waited three years to find out whether their marriage in Massachusetts was legal.

On Wednesday, they got an answer.

A judge ruled that marriages of gay couples from New York who wed in Massachusetts before last July are valid because New York had not explicitly banned same-sex marriages until then.

"We've been in limbo," Adams said. "To learn that the marriage we cherish so much is legal, and recognized in Massachusetts and New York -- well, we can't wait to get together to pop open a bottle of champagne."

Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow gay marriage in May 2004, but couples are barred from marrying in the state if their marriages would be prohibited in their home states.

Adams and Davie, from New York City, wed in Lowell, Mass., in 2004. The New York Court of Appeals ruled on July 6, 2006, that New York law limits marriage to unions between a man and a woman.

The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders had asked for clarification of the status of New York couples who married in Massachusetts before that ruling.

In a May 10 decision, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly found that those marriages are legally valid, saying that same-sex marriages became "prohibited" in New York only on July 6, 2006.

"We've come such a long way," said Adams, 45. "We know that we have a legally recognized marriage, and it's going to open up new opportunities for us to be treated fairly, to get benefits we deserve as a couple."

It was unclear exactly how many New York couples married in Massachusetts during the two-year period, but GLAD said it was "in the hundreds." The group had previously said 173 New York couples were affected.

After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, hundreds of couples from other states came to get married. But former Gov. Mitt Romney directed municipal clerks not to give licenses to out-of-state couples, citing a 1913 law that bars couples from marrying in Massachusetts if the marriages would be prohibited in their home states.

Eight couples from six states challenged the law.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in March 2006 that Massachusetts could use the 1913 law to bar gay couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont from marrying in the state because they had an "express prohibition" against same-sex marriage. The high court said it was unclear whether gay marriage was specifically banned in New York and Rhode Island, and sent that part of the case back to Connolly.

Connolly ruled in September that gay couples from Rhode Island have the right to marry in Massachusetts because gay marriage is not expressly prohibited there.

Gay rights groups praised Connolly's most recent ruling Wednesday.

But Michael Long, who heads New York's small but politically influential Conservative Party, predicted Connolly's ruling wouldn't hold up in New York.

"It's wishful thinking by some homosexual couples that the interpretation of a particular judge will change their status," Long said. "The law in the state of New York is very clear -- marriage is between a man and a woman."

Long said the issue could wind up back in New York courts if the gay couples affected seek to press for marriage rights in their home state.

Vincent Maniscalco and his husband, Edward DeBonis, wed in Somerville, Mass., in May 2004. They have been together since 1995.

"We already held ourselves out as a married couple, but there was still kind of a gray area in terms of the law, and it's good to hear that's resolved," Maniscalco said.

Now, he said, it's time to test out the ruling.

"There may be some institutions or organizations that still may question whether we're legally married, but we just have to put it into practice and see what happens," he said.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, has proposed that gay marriage be legalized, but so far he has failed to convince either the Republican-led state Senate or the Democratic-controlled state Assembly to do so. As state attorney general, Spitzer had said gay marriage was illegal under existing New York law.

Maniscalco, who splits his time between Averill Park, N.Y., and New York City, said he hoped the ruling would help advance the measure Spitzer proposed.

"I'm hoping it will be an impetus for legislators," he said. "The sky isn't going to fall -- it isn't going to be the end of the world if gay couples wed."

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Associated Press writer Denise Lavoie in Boston contributed to this report.